Christmas at Hogsmeade

I spent Christmas at Hogsmeade this year. Yep, I even got some face-time with Ollivander the wand-maker himself! My family took a trip to Harry Potter world in the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure theme park, and it was an absolutely magical experience.

The creators of the park did a really great job designing the shops and rides to look like the actual movie set. I felt like I would bump into Harry, Ron, or Hermione any moment. The stores were small and cozy and packed to the ceiling with Extendable ears, Slytherin scarves, and stuffed plushies of Fawkes and Fluffy.

One downside of the small, narrow shops was the fact that it was really cramped inside. And if you want to get into Ollivander's wand shop, be prepared to wait outside. The staff will only let 27 people in at a time, so that Ollivander can have more time to find the perfect wand for one special witch or wizard.

During our time in the shop, Ollivander chose a boy out of the crowd to be fitted with a wand. However, the boy he chose did not speak English fluently, so he had trouble understanding Ollivander's instructions. Because of this, the show was even funnier, because when the boy tried out a spell with each new wand, Ollivander would correct his pronunciation. It reminded me of the first movie, when Hermione told Ron, "it's Levee-OH-sa, not Levee-oh-SA".

Our chocolate frog card inside was of Godric Gryffindor

I hope all of you guys had a great Christmas and holiday so far. I couldn't have had a better one, drinking frozen butterbeer and spending time with my family on the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride (The wait for that ride is over 2 hours for a reason: it's worth every minute of the wait when you get to see the inside of Hogwarts Castle and listen to the moving portraits). I'll be back with more posts later this week!

<3 Brittney

P.S. Butterbeer was definitely the highlight of the day. If you're curious, the frozen butterbeer I tried tasted like cream soda with a gingery kick---it was very sweet, creamy, and slightly sour in a good way.  I wish I could take a gallon of it to-go!